My First Musky- Saugeen River
We went out for our yearly camping trip to Saugeen Bluffs Conservation area. we had a great time hanging out with family and friends, and my 3 month old daughter came with us, and impressed us with her good behavior and tolerance of the outdoors!!
my baby girl Breanna loving her uncle playing some campfire guitar.
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our family photo on the saugeen river
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family and friends messing around on the river.
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myself and my good fishing buddy managed to get out on the river Saturday morning, our target was mainly bass, but we knew there was a chance for trout and salmon (not likely yet), and pike and musky as well. regardless I kept my 6lb test spinning rod on since my main target was bass and that's all I ever catch.
the Saugeen is a beautiful river!!
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we decided to take the sportspal out, and figured we would be able to hit a lot more water if we hooked up my buddies electric trolling motor. we headed upstream about mid morning, and it ended up taking us multiple hours to only travel a few kms upstream against the current. after walking what seemed like our hundredth set of rapids, that were too much for the 30 lb thrust we decided to start drifting back downstream and finally put a line in the water, since I had no energy left, and my ankle (broken last December duck hunting) couldn't handle any more rocks!!
my first cast, and I felt something on the line. it wasn't shaking so I thought I might have hooked a rock or stick or something. until I see a flash of green turn over right beside the boat, and realized it was a musky. after bringing it gently to the boat about 3 different times and attempting to net it, only to have it take off and try and run, we finally got it into the net and in the boat!!
After some excellent netsmanship, my buddy tried to grab the fish and pass it over to me. the fish does one final thrash, and manages to land some of its sharps into his fingers. I finally got a hold of it, snapped some pictures, realized my scale was dead, and we didn't have a tape, so I released her back into the river. at work this morning I scaled the photo off of my finger tip as a reference, at about 28". my buddy guessed it was about 8lbs (he has a lot more fishing experience than me), and according to online references, a 28" fish could weigh that much.
a couple of teeth marks.
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that is a loose flap of skin. doesn't look that bad in this photo, but it could use some stitches. he didn't want to go for them, so my wife being a nurse she bandaged him up good.
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this was my first confirmed and photographed musky catch (may have got one a few years ago but didn't photograph it and didn't know how to ID at the time), and likely the biggest fish I have ever caught. the rest of the weekend we spent a few more hours on the water, and only managed a small bass for my buddy.
But that Musky is enough to keep me coming back to this beautiful river, and excellent campground for years to come!!
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